Posture problems X furniture: an ergonomic investigation with the personal computer users from a nursing school

Abstract

The computer usage has become essential nowadays and the Nursing staff meeting this technological improvement has been assimilating it in practice, which is started in Graduation course. As users of the computer division from a Nursing School we have observed students complaints related to adequacy of the furniture used, then, we were interested in developing this research which has as object to analyze the furniture from the computer division according to the ergonomic recommendation and identify body posture adopted by the students in typing activity. The procedures used were performed in three stages, which were: free supervision of environment and furniture measure, surveillance of body posture and interviews. The results pointed out that the furniture is inappropriate referring to: fixed counter without foot, support, without document case; chairs are not regulative, back support width out of recommended standards, there are no armrest and wheels, there are only four legs and the covering is slimy and stiff. Only in 18,6% of the observation period the students adopted the perfect posture in typing activity, that is, upright spinal column, elbows at the same level of the counter, deflected legs and supported feet. It is suggested that the workplace be planned for typing from known facts related to anthropometric dimensions of the users and use of proper furniture in order to obtain a concordant set among furniture, milieu and user providing comfort and avoiding health, problems.